r/CarAccidentSurvivors

I was in an accident almost three weeks ago. I was injured, but not seriously, airbags deployed, and my car was totaled. My little dog was in the car, and fortunately she was ok (I think she jumped out the window and ran down the street). As everyone here knows, it was so scary. Now I have a new car and am trying to get back to normal, but I feel so afraid. Every time a car pulls out in front of me I startle. I drive under the speed limit, and just do the minimum amount of driving for errands, etc. I have zero enjoyment of my new car, just fear. Any advice on how to get over the fear? I do not want to live this way.

So...this might be a bit of a weird post. Bear with me. For a while I thought that I was "knocked out" by the crash, then got sedated and taken to hospital. A few weeks ago a relative told me "oh no you were responsive when the ambulance arrived, you were communicating". I don't remember *any* of it, never remembered the accident-day (went to bed the day prior, "woke up" almost a week later post-coma). I don't know how I was communicating/(maybe) talking with [TW: Injuries] >!a pneumothorax and severe tbi!< and was rough enough to be put in a >!coma!< "on the roadside" once the fire department helped pull me from the wreckage, but...I still kinda worry about how I behaved. Like...was I uncooperative (as far as I could do anything)? Was I....being an ass?

I've had paramedics (local ones, not involved in the accident-response) tell me they know it's a very "extreme" situation to be in, that they wouldn't mind, but...I still kinda worry. As dumb as that sounds. I wouldn't want to have been an "asshole patient":( I did recently write a thank-you letter to both the ambulance crew and the air rescue crew, but I refrained from asking that in that letter.

Does anyone else have/had similar thoughts? Like..."those people quite literally saved my life, I really hope I didn't misbehave."

Just got into a wreck. no one is hurt or died, which is good. i can’t stop feeling like a failure and awful about it. i can’t believe this is my real life and i almost wish i didn’t make it out. how do i feel better?

How are you feeling? Let us know the good, the bad, and the ugly, and we will support each other!

So...my accident was in September, and I've supposedly done pretty decent with recovering. Externally I pretty much only got some scars and (oddly permanent) bruises left, but even those are "gone" if I got a shirt and 3/4-length pants on. I do have some "invisible" physical damage though, related to a TBI, the hospital stay, and there's some mental/psychological consequences too. And maybe it's because I'm an introverted person, but I REALLY HATE IT when those consequences make me behave "odd", draw attention, etc. I "stick out" sometimes, and I can't change that, and it's really uncomfortable. Especially because I look "fine". Even when I get a chance to explain why I am the way I am...that's not always something I want to do either (generally, but also "woe is me"-kind of feeling). I get exhausted fast, even from non-physical "efforts" (like dinner party kind of events), my memory is shit, I struggle with word-finding difficulty and emotional regulation, I get headaches a lot...and I can't "act over" that all the time.

Like today, at a rehab-gym (!!), some trainer I'd never interacted with walked up, looked at my training plan and went "you could do a little more, don't you think?"? I did shut him up with "I'm not doing not too bad for having been in a coma half a year ago", but...I don't know if he believes me, I don't want to bring that up all the time, and it got me some weird looks from people around us :/ And that was a literal place with *only* people in a rehab-program for something. And even there I apparently stuck out.

Don't get me wrong, I know I should be happy that I still got all my original limbs, can use them all, etc, and I am, but...I sometimes feel like that "looking normal"-thing also makes it stick out more when I hit limits caused by the internal stuff :| I feel like maybe people would be more understanding if something was "visibly wrong".

I hope that makes sense :/

I was in an accident in August, a woman turned in front of me and we hit head on. Other than a concussion and some gnarly bruising from the seatbelt and hitting my leg on the dash I was able to walk away from it. Physically I am fully recovered. Mentally though is a different story. I have PTSD and I just cannot go a day without the accident playing in my head over and over. It’s driving me insane. I want to move forward but it’s like my brain won’t allow that to happen. Does anyone have any tips or advice on how to help my brain get out of that constant state of fight or flight?

Hello, this is my first time ever posting on reddit so I'm sorry if I didn't tag properly or don't censor things right. I'm not going to go into any details about my accident, but it was very bad my car was demolished and I was unable to exit on my own. Its now been 7 months since the accident, and nothing has gone back to normal, I feel like my old life, who I was before the accident, is gone. I'm still in pain every single day, I can't walk the same anymore, I can't bend right anymore, I can't twist and move or anything anymore I'm in my 20s still but I feel like I aged 40 years in one day. Some days I wish I didn't walk away from the accident, I'm sorry if thats not ok to say here, its just so hard to see a light at the end of all this. I'm still not allowed to go back to work after all this time, and I just feel like everything I worked for, my job, my car, my independence was taken from me that day and I can't figure out how to put my life back together from here. I feel like my injuries were really bad but somehow not bad enough for people to believe how awful I feel everyday. I mostly just wanted to rant and get this out because I feel like I'm drowning in these feelings lately, but I guess I also want to see if there was anyone else that felt the same way I do. I guess more than anything I want to know that I'm not alone, and that I'm not crazy for not being over it, and not being ok still, physically, mentally, or emotionally. Also if this is not an acceptable post I will delete it no problem.